Port Angeles High School DECA Students and Community Outreach Projects

Port Angeles High School DECA Students and Community Outreach Projects

Posted on 12/06/2017

Community Service Project

The Port Angeles High School branch of the Distributive Education Clubs of America (DECA) presented 33 Thanksgiving baskets in all to the five elementary schools in time for Thanksgiving. The Thanksgiving baskets included everything needed to prepare a complete dinner turkey dinner, including a turkey, green beans, corn, cranberry sauce, potatoes, stuffing, pumpkin and a pie crust.

Thanksgiving Baskets has been our community service project for the last couple of years. “We first asked our elementary schools to select families in need of help with their Thanksgiving meal,” said Jennifer Rogers, DECA advisor.

To promote the project and solicit the donations needed, DECA students broadcasted live from the KONP radio station in mid-September. “Our primary need was for turkeys,” said Rogers. “We had the canned food covered with donations from DECA classes.”

“We discreetly delivered seven turkey meal baskets to Franklin Elementary, five baskets to Jefferson Elementary, three to Hamilton Elementary, twelve to Roosevelt Elementary, and six to Dry Creek Elementary on one of the last school days before Thanksgiving break,” Rogers said. School counselors contacted the families to arrange for picking up the baskets at the end of the school day.

The DECA membership was very excited about this project. “We felt it had a huge impact on local families this Thanksgiving, thanks to great support from the Port Angeles community!” said Rogers. “The students liked the idea that no family had to go hungry this Thanksgiving.”

Guest Speaker

Local businessman Jim Ciaciuch came to Port Angeles High School to speak to Advanced and Seminar students. Ciaciuch is an entrepreneur and runs many businesses in Port Angeles. He shared some ideas on how one should present during an interview and ways to make the most of a first impression. He also spoke about his businesses and shared examples of business plans required by financial institutions for funding.

Community Presentation

Three DECA Leadership students, Hayden Woods, Aeverie Politika, and Josie Ciaciuch, recently visited the office of Westport Marine. It was a great opportunity to get DECA Leadership students in front of business owners to practice their presentation skills and talk about what they have learned in class.

A Mug of Appreciation for PAHS Teachers

DECA students decorated and filled mugs with goodies, then delivered them to Port Angeles High School teachers during DECA Week, November 13 - 17. Port Angeles Windermere Real Estate donated 120 mugs, and the DECA Club decorated each with a teachers’ names, an offset PA logo, and the slogan “Love DECA”. They filled the mugs with candies and pencils that said, “Pencils are #2, because you are #1”. Most importantly, a personalized thank you card was included in each mug.